ending gender-based violence;
challenging gender stereotypes;
closing gender gaps in the labour market;
achieving equal participation across different sectors of the economy;
addressing the gender pay and pension gaps;
closing the gender care gap and achieving gender balance in decision-making and in politics.
Rapporteur Andreu (Gender Equality) was invited by the EP FEMM Committee Chair at the inter-parliamentary Committee meeting celebrating the International Women's Day 2021 that took place on 4 March 2021.
Roundtable on women participation in politics was organised during the Summit of Regions and Cities, the opinion "A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025" was mentioned during the debate.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- requests that local and regional governments be recognised as strategic partners in the design, implementation and monitoring of the strategy because of their responsibilities and the work they do in carrying out those responsibilities. The necessary resources must be secured in order to implement the strategy;
- with a view to taking a gender-sensitive approach to policies, programmes and projects, asks the Commission to set up an interinstitutional working group to ensure this multilevel governance so as to effectively take into account the work required to achieve genuine gender equality;
- urges the European Commission to include all forms of violence against women and girls in the "Eurocrimes" set out in Article 83 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;
- requests that the European Commission ask the Member States to organise and support initiatives to empower women with regard to local and regional elections, so as to overcome discrimination and the obstacles that women face in these processes, including stereotypes and social norms that lead to female leadership being valued less than male leadership;
- asks the EU institutions, including the Committee of the Regions, to adopt codes of conduct favouring the participation of women and men on equal terms with regard to composition and leadership positions, with the ultimate aim being gender parity between CoR members;
- emphasises that the European Semester and the Rule of Law Report have the potential to monitor gender equality challenges through the country-specific recommendations and by integrating specific measures into the National Reform Programmes and national rebuilding and resilience programmes;
- points out that the COVID-19 crisis has a clear gender dimension. It will therefore be vital to incorporate a gender perspective into the Recovery Fund by conducting impact assessments and applying gender responsive budgeting principles to all funds.